Azerbaijan's GDP has quadrupled over the past 20 years, the country’s minister of economy said on Thursday.

In the last 20 years, Azerbaijan’s budget revenues have increased more than 30 times, Minister of Economy Mikayil Jabbarov said at 18th meeting of the SPECA Board of Directors, News.Az reports.

He also pointed out that Azerbaijan's foreign trade turnover has grown more than 10 times during the reporting period.

“We have been able to lower our direct foreign debt to around ten percent of GDP. Azerbaijan's foreign exchange reserves are ten times more than our direct foreign debt. We have established a very favorable investment environment not only for the energy sector, but also for other sectors,” the minister said.

“Azerbaijan has entered a new stage of strategic development for the period 2020–2030 in the post-pandemic and post-conflict periods,” he added.

The UN SPECA program was established on March 26, 1998.

At present, the SPECA member states are Afghanistan, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan.

SPECA provides a platform for sub-regional cooperation to realize the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) that can best be achieved through regional cooperation.

Azerbaijan is chairing the program in 2023 and hosting SPECA Days in Baku on November 20–24, 2023.